World’s Oldest Rock Art Reveals Early Human Journey to Australia
An international team, co-led by Southern Cross University, Indonesia’s national research
and innovation agency (BRIN) and Griffith University, discovered and dated cave paintings
made by our species on the island of Sulawesi at least 67,800 years ago.
The paintings were dated using advanced uraniumseries analysis of mineral deposits around the pigment, giving a solid minimum age for the artwork. The cave shows evidence of artistic activity spanning tens of thousands of years, with art being produced there up until about 20,000 years ago.
“It is now evident from our new phase of research that Sulawesi was home to one of the world’s richest and most longstanding artistic cultures, one with origins in the earliest history of human occupation of the island at least 67,800 years ago,” said Professor Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist and geochemist from the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research (GCSCR), who co-led the study.
Importantly, the findings help strengthen the idea that modern humans were present in this region long before 65,000 years ago and likely used these islands as stepping stones in their journey from mainland Asia into what became Sahul — the ancient landmass of Australia and New Guinea. The age and location of the art support theories about early human migration through Indonesia into Australia, especially by groups closely linked to the ancestors of Indigenous Australians.
This remarkable discovery not only rewrites part of the story of human artistic expression but also offers a powerful glimpse into how our ancestors moved, adapted, and expressed themselves tens of thousands of years ago.
Professor Renaud Joannes-Boyau from the Geo archaeology and Archaeometry Research Group (GARG) at Southern Cross University, who co-led the research, said the discovery sheds light on the most likely course of humans’ ancient island-hopping journey from mainland Asia to Sahul via the northern route.
“With the dating of this extremely ancient rock art in Sulawesi, we now have the oldest direct evidence for the presence of modern humans along this northern migration corridor into Sahul,” Professor Joannes-Boyau said.
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